Sport

HELLENIC LEAGUE: Highworth boss against artificial pitches

First published
in Sport
by Andy Warren, Deputy sports editor, awarren@swindonadvertiser.co.uk, @AndyWarren_

HIS side may have seen their weekend clash washed out by the rain once again, but John Fisher doesn’t believe artificial pitches are the answer as non-league clubs look to beat the weather.

Highworth’s visit to Bracknell was called off on Saturday after the Berkshire club’s pitch was waterlogged following persistent downpours, meaning the side from The Elms are yet to play a league game in 2014.

Even training has been a problem for Fisher’s side as their home pitch is in no state for him to put his players through their paces but the veteran manager does not believe 3G pitches, recently championed by Supermarine boss Dave Webb, are the answer.

“The weather is really frustrating, of course it is, because we have gone so many weeks without a game and it’s hard to train too,” he said.

“There is talk of having some pitches done around here but that’s just for training but for matches I would think that is out of reach for a club like us.

“It would be out of most teams’ budgets I would have thought unless you have a sugar daddy willing to put hundreds of thousands of pounds in, which isn’t going to happen.”

Furthermore, Fisher believes the introduction of artificial pitches would put an entire breed of non-league footballer out of a job.

“Unless you are technically very good players then you won’t play because lots of players at our level get better when the pitches get bad because they can make tackles and keep going through the mud,” he said. “That won’t be as important on plastic pitches so you are basically ruling people like that out of the game.

“You would do away with players who have played for years because they’re not technically as good which would be sad.